Welcome to my National Poetry Month project for 2017! Students - Each day of April 2017, I will close my eyes, and I will reach into my box of 64 Crayola crayons.
Aerial View of Crayola Box
Photo by Georgia LV
Each day I will choose a crayon (without looking), pulling this crayon out of the box. This daily selected crayon will in some way inspire the poem for the next day. Each day of this month, I will choose a new crayon, thinking and writing about one color every day for a total of 30 poems inspired by colors.
As of April 2, it happened that my poems took a turn to all be from the point of view of a child living in an apartment building. So, you'll notice this thread running through the month of colors. I'd not planned this...it was a writing surprise.
I welcome any classrooms of poets who wish to share class poems (class poems only please) related to each day's color (the one I choose or your own). Please post your class poem or photograph of any class crayon poem goodness to our Writing the Rainbow Padlet HERE. (If you have never posted on a Padlet, it is very easy. Just double click on the red background, and a box will appear. Write in this box, and upload any poemcrayon sharings you wish.)
Here is a list of this month's Writing the Rainbow Poems so far:
And now...today's crayon. Mahogany!
Tree Memories
by Amy LV
Students - Today is International Haiku Poetry Day, so today's poem is a respectful nod to nature and brevity.
I love the color Mahogany, and I was excited to choose it from my Crayola box. But then....it seemed like a difficult color name. Mahogany trees are tropical trees; they do not grow near the apartment building of my young speaker. And mahogany furniture is expensive. I do not imagine our young speaker living around expensive furniture. Plus, this color name is not a word that people use in daily life, not a color that most children would use in regular speech.
Then I began thinking about trees and how our childhoods are marked by special trees. I looked up trees that often grow in cities, and found that maples are common city trees. Then I imagined a grown-up apartment friend having different tree memories, memories from Mexico or Central America, where she grew up. I don't know if Tia Inez is a real aunt or a very close family friend who feels like an aunt. This is still a mystery.
If you are Writing the Rainbow with me, perhaps your color for today will make you think of something in nature or about a faraway place. Maybe you will even write a haiku.
Colors can take us anywhere. And if you'd like to join in with your own poem at our Writing the Rainbow Padlet, please do! It is growing every day, full of ideas and poems by poets of all ages.
And please don't miss the links to all kinds of Poetry Month goodness up there in my upper left sidebar. Happy seventeenth day of National Poetry Month!
Please share a comment below if you wish.
I totally missed that today is International Haiku Day. There's so much to follow this month. Love your haiku and the connection to mahogany through one of our young friend's neighbors.
ReplyDeleteHappy Haiku Day. I had other plans but maybe will celebrate on another day. You've included a lot in those nine words, Amy--family connections especially. One of my grandmothers had a chair that we were told to be so careful with because it was made from mahogany, brought from ? Ino longer remember, but I do remember that I liked that new word.
ReplyDeleteHmm...and with that name, Tia Inez, you have given us a bit of a backstory clue about our character!
ReplyDeleteI could go on and on about the trees that were important in my childhood!!